5000 miles in 2 weeks

2 men from the Elders quorom showed up at our house on Saturday morning. They helped load the packed boxes and some furniture onto the trailers for about 3 hours. We really couldn’t have packed things much tighter in the big trailer but there ended up being a little room on the small trailer so it was just about perfect. We ended up leaving around 1:30.

Adam didn’t get a chance to replace the brake line on the Yukon so he kept telling me to be careful how hard I braked but it never did end up being a problem.

The dogs rode in the suburban with Adam. Poor Jack shook and drooled and panted all the way to Georgia and only slept in the motel rooms at night. We bought some Dramamine for him but we didn’t get the dose right for him until the first day I rode in the same car as them. I called the vet and they told me he could have 100 mg instead of the 25 mg I was told the last time I had talked to them when we moved out to UT.

Though nothing eventful happened, it took us 4 ½ days to get to the house. We got there 1 ½ hours before a few people would be showing up to help unload the trailers. Adam’s parents were there to greet us. They took us to a chinese restaurant for dinner and we got back just after one of Adam’s friends arrived to help us. Barry, Lanette, Ammon, Jon, Charmay (and Charmay’s 2 children) all came to help. The trailer was unloaded in about an hour.

We ended up staying a Barry and Lanette’s basement. The next day, Adam and Barry attempted to replace the brake line but they weren’t able to get the correct length for it. While they were doing that, I transferred all the blankets and dog pillows to the Yukon and got it set up for the ride back. We had lunch with Barry and Lanette. The dogs got to run around in the back yard. We spent the night one more time. We left after having lunch with them again.

We drove from Lawrenceville to Rapid City, South Dakota. I think it took three days but there was so much driving going on that I can’t quite remember anymore. It turned out that for Jack’s sake, I had to sit in the back seat the whole way. It was the only way he would actually lay down and relax. He still never slept but at least he relaxed most of the time.

Outside of town, we visited a historic sod house. The place was actually closed but we went around the fence anyway to take a quick peek. There were farm tools and equipment strewn around the yard. The house wasn' t all that impressive. I couldn't really see inside the windows though so after looking through the pics once they were downloaded, I got to see a little more detail. The sun was starting to go down anyway so we didn’t have much time. It was in the 70’s and beautiful.

The stretch of interstate we drove on in the dark was the only stretch of interstate we would travel that was considered scenic and as it turned out, it was too dark to see any of it.

We picked a hotel on the far side of town on a hill. We would later regret the location of this hotel but it seemed just fine on the first night. We woke up to snow on the ground and the wind was blowing so hard that we were barely able to open the hotel door. I was freezing! I wasn’t prepared to be in a blizzard on this trip. The dogs and I fought against the wind on their morning walk. I was actually leaning at a steep angle just to keep standing. The little snow/ice pellets felt like my eye balls were being sand-blasted. It stayed like that all through that day and even the next morning. Luckily, Marlene, Adam’s aunt, lent me a parka for the remainder of our stay there.

We stayed for two days. We visited his aunt Marlene and Uncle Gene, then went over to his Grandma and Grandpa’s house to visit for a bit. Marlene and Gene were gracious enough to lock up their dogs so ours could come into the house and use the yard.

The next day, Gene and Marlene took us to the cabin (under construction) of the Senator. It looks out over Mount Rushmore. Afterward, we went to see Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and drive through Custer State Park. The wind was blowing so hard that I only got out of the car for a minute at Mount Rushmore before retreating. At Custer, we took the wildlife loop road. We saw deer, antelope, prairie dogs, bison, wild turkey and wild burros. That was really neat! Jasmine and Bear were watching as we passed all of them but never barked…they were quite mesmerized. After our driving around, we visited everyone again.

The view from the cabin. See the carved faces up in the highest rock?

Finally, the winds had mostly died down. I was able to walk the dogs without freezing my face off and leaning into the wind.

We had lunch one more time with Gene and Marlene before heading into the Black Hills on our way home. As we neared Casper, WY later that day, it started snowing. We pushed onto Rock Springs. We heard they had a chain requirement before Evanston so we stopped for the night. The next morning, even though the roads were horrible, the interstate was open so we got going and made it home at around 7 PM.

Our house in Georgia

So, for all of you who have never seen our house in GA before, here is how it looked when we moved in 5 years ago. Keep in mind, it was a foreclosure so it had a lot of problems. We had to tear out all the flooring, walls and ceiling in the basement and start over because of mold. All the panes of glass that were broken were replaced, every room was repainted. We've done a lot of other work on it but they are things you probably can't see in the pics. So here is what I have right now.





Main bathroom...this was the first room I redid in the house. I peeled off the wall paper, mudded, sanded and painted the walls, painted the cabinets & doors, I even cut the new flooring (but Barry laid it for us). All the tubs/showers (3) in the house were leaking badly so they all had to be fixed, as well as the ceilings below each drain.




The kitchen, obviously. The walls have been painted, the stove and dishwasher have been replaced.



The basement. I wasn't sad about losing the walls down here.

This is what you see when you walk through the door. The fireplace divides the living room, dining room & kitchen.

The front of the house. We had someone come out to look at the tree and it was going to cost $500 to remove but he said it is in really good condition so it shouldn't fall. There were 4 pear trees on the side of the yard and they all collapsed during an ice storm but this one held up strong with only a couple of small limbs breaking off so I think he was right.

Our goings on

Well, I have been pushing through my boxes to get rid of things I feel I would have no sadness with letting go. I sold almost my whole colections of fabric (not including my wool) this past week. So, that cleared out a bunch of boxes, about 20 in total now.

I took four boxes of books to a book shop to see if they wanted to buy any but they only wanted 4 or 5 books so I sold them. Unfortunately, the book shop is a really nice one, not like Pioneer Book. They don't have any book stores like that here.

I'm still struggling with my chest cold. It kept me up most of the night last night. I fell asleep with a cough drop in my mouth and woke up in time to feel it fall out of my mouth into my hair. I had to find and pick out 3 pieces of cough drop in the dark. Poor Adam didn't get very good sleep either between me tossing around and coughing. The dogs really can't wait until I feel better so they can go on a walk again.

I went to the volunteer orietation classes at the Humane Society so I can start doing my volunteer hours for school. They have a prison dog training program. Bad dogs go to the prison and the prisoners take the dogs and retrain them. (Maybe I should Bear and Jack there?) Anyway, a batch of dogs have just finished the prison program and they all have potential owners lined up. So on Saturday, I will be a handler for one of the dogs. There will be a trainer that comes in and talks all about what the dogs can now do, how to act with them so that they don't revert and show everyone how to keep the training going. It's 2 1/2 hours and I'm really looking forward to doing that. I just hope I can breathe right by then.

Adam had a phone interview today for a position in Atlanta (same position he's doing out here) and they offered it to him. It will start at the end of April. So he will actually end up moving down before me now. I have to stay to finish up the schooling. We have really been wishy washy about this move. While we both felt like it was the right thing to do, neither of us want to go back. We really tried to figure out what to do. Well, a job in Atlanta hasn't been available since we left, really. So when Adam found this job that is not only in Gwinnett but also on the ATM team which he wanted, he applied right away. He only found the job listing this morning so things have moved extremally fast!!! I guess this is Heavenly Father's way of telling us we need to listen to him when we already know what he wants us to do. Adam has his vacation next week and so we will spend the week getting boxes and things packed and loaded in the trailer so he can take a trailer load down during his vacation days. Good thing the house is empty down in GA.

I have been working on a reflector for my bike trailer so we'll be more visible. I still plan on adding some blinking lights to it but I've finished with the reflector part. I was going to line up the reflectors across the "plate" but I decided to go with a couple of CD's as well for day time visibility. The triangle was on sale at REI for only $4.

I caught my death of cold

Well...I went and did it. Adam was warning me about the weather on one of the days earlier this week. He told me it was snowing in Mountain Home, it was raining in Nampa, hailing in Caldwell. Well, here in Boise, the rain cleared, the sun came out and the streets dried up. So I went for a bike ride. I should have taken my rain gear with me but I didn't. I tried getting home as fast as I could when the skies started turning darker. I had to stop to put on more layers as the temps dropped. I had to stop again to turn my rear light on since it was getting way too dark. Just after that stop, it all started. Sprinkling, then rain, then hail. The hail was pelting my face (the only part of skin that was showing). I had to shield my face with my hand. But then I came to a narrow bridge and had to have both hands on the handlebars. I took it in the face for about 3 minutes. I was finally in my own neighborhood, on the far side of it. The hail slowed down and the rain started back up. I was drenched and freezing. I got home and got into some dry clothes, had some hot chocolate and bundled up under some covers. Well...it happened anyway, I got sick and it's no fun. It was a stupid thing I did going out without my rain gear. If I had just been able to stay dry, I'd be ok right now.

NO MORE CHOCOLATE!!!

Adam hid a number of things of chocolate around the house on valentine's day, then brought more home for our anniversary and a few days ago, he found the girl scout cookie jackpot. My body has been screaming at me all day, no more chocolate!!! Can you believe that? I don't usually feel like that. Usually, I can't get enough of chocolate. I guess I need to cut my intake of girl scout cookies down a few notches. I'm sure this feeling will pass quickly enough but it's an odd feeling for a confirmed chocoholic.

Memories

I have been going through things deciding what to pitch, what to give to Goodwill and what to keep.

Adam's family has a newsletter published every month by his grandma. It's all the Fischer side of his family. It's fun to read about what other people are up to (even though I don't know many of them very well, but you would be surprised how many of them I have met more than once). Adam's Aunt Barbara started doing the same thing as I am but she has a lot more memories saved. She has started writing in her journal about what these things mean to her. She takes pictures, scans them, whatever and then gets rid of the object. There are even some heirlooms that she is offering to whoever wants them since she doesn't use them.

She inspired me to do a little of the same. So here's a couple of pictures of some items I've been saving for a long time and am ready to give up now but want to remember them and what they mean to me.

This picture has 4 things that mean different things to me. The Ty Detmer card was something I got at D.A.R.E. I was so proud to have gotten Ty Detmer's card that I have saved it all these years...perhaps it would be worth something someday. I have given up on that idea. The pink and white rope was a friendship bracelet that Jennifer Fair gave to me after we moved to Florida. I wore that bracelet for at least a year. It fell off but I safety pinned it back together and wore it that way for another year or so. I finally took it off but wasn't willing to give it up. They Just Say No pin was something I got at Ruskin while working on the Just Say No posters and campaign while in the student council. I still know part of one of the songs on the Just Say No tape. "Just say no, just say no, just say no. Just say no, just say no, just say no. Just say no, that's the only way to go, just say no, just say no, just say no. Cigaretts you don't need." *head bopping to a very catchy beat* They're a very filthy weed. Just say no, just say no, just say no....." The last thing in this picture is a bunch of old stamps from Dad. He collected these stamps as a child and gave them to me when I started showing an interest in stamps myself. I was so happy that he gave me something that meant something to him. Unfortunately, I taped most of them into a stamp collection book. Those are long gone. This is what is left of his once much larger collection.

This picture just has my cross stitch projects. The two smaller ones are the first ones I have ever finished. The middle one is one that I had started while living in the Hone house. I quit working on it when I could no longer stick the needle through the holes. The instructions said that on 32 count aida fabric, it would have turned out to be 6 1/8" x 4 3/8". That was the smallest count fabric they had listed. Well...mine is only 3 5/8" x 2 1/2. Teeny tiny!!! I saved it thinking maybe one day I'd start it back up. 2-3 years ago, Sheri sent me the same cross stitched project (about 3 times the size of mine) finished and framed. So, I no longer feel a need to hang onto the original project. Thanks, Sheri!

Both of these were made by a man in Savannah, GA. Adam and I went there for our anniversary 5 years ago. I had just found Jack and I was so worried that Jack would be claimed y his owner while we gone and I would never see him again. Needless to say, that didn't happen. We were walking down the river front street when this man asked us if Adam wanted to buy me a rose. Adam said yes, and he proceeded to make this rose out of a palmetto frond. It was really neat to watch. So later, while walking the same stretch of road in the opposite direction, he asked Adam if he wanted something to go with that rose, so again, Adam said yes. He made the heart thing. He was really skilled at working with the palmetto fronds which were still green and flexieat he time. He told us how the palmettos were sacred to the Native Americans. He was a tall lanky black man who looked like he had missed some meals. We saw him make a few more things for other people as well. I always really liked these but I really don't know what to do with it. I had the heart with the flower tucked in it hung on the wall but the curly parts were always sticking out too far into the room.